In the formulation of lubricant additive concentrates (also known as DI-packages) and finished lubricating oils such as crankcase lubricating oils, one is continuously confronted by the truism that things never stand still. In order to be successful in the field, it is necessary to provide compositions which satisfy ever-increasingly difficult performance demands imposed upon them by purchasers, consumers original equipment manufacturers, and industry groups. One of the key components in such compositions is the dispersant component, and in order to have any chance of achieving the present-day performance standards the dispersant must not only be highly effective in its own right, but must be capable of maintaining its high performance level when in combination with various other components utilized in the search for compositions that can achieve the these standards. And in this search, the performance interactions among components of a proposed DI-package can only be ascertained by experiment. Then, and only then, can valid predictions be made concerning performance capabilities of a given class of formulations.